Relocating from FL to GA (Atlanta, Duluth: fit in, best schools, universities)

[shaqmercedez]

My family (myself, husband and two teen daughters) will be relocating to GA in July 2007. We was looking at Fayetteville, however that may be a little small for us. My number one concern is a great high school for my girls.

Because we are coming from central FL, and is 30 minutes from Orlando and Tampa, we would also like to be close to Atlanta, BUT NOT IN ATLANTA.

We are very family oriented, and would like a nice city with lots of family activites durning the year.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. thanks

[irish2]

Kennesaw Mountain High School in Kennesaw Georgia (Cobb county school district) has been rated one of the top High Schools in the country. They have an excellent Math, Science, and Technology program (Magnet)..their ROTC program and bands have won top honors. The faculty and principal are top notch and truly care about the students learning. The school was built in 2000, so everything is pretty new and the campus is really nice. There are people that move in to the KMHS school district, just so their children can go to KMHS.

Kennesaw is a great place to live. We are close to the mountains and lakes, 30 minutes from Atlanta....and the downtown historic district (City of Kennesaw) host a lot of concerts, festivals, and family activities throughout the year. We also have several great colleges/universities in the area....and of course, once you have lived here a year, your children can get the Hope Scholarship...which pays for tuition and books, if your child has a b average and meets the other criteria. Do a search on the internet for Cobb County and the Atlanta area. Kennesaw is a great place to live!

[jxu66]

For best schools, I would pick east cobb (Walton, Pope and lassiter) or North Fulton (Milton, NorthView and chattahoochee high) districts.

Also, check out http://reportcard2005.gaosa.org/k12/default.aspx for additional stat.

Just read the stat carefully (specially regarding average SAT score). Some schools has a lot top heavy students and while in other schools all students are average.

[shaqmercedez]

Thank you so much for all the input. I have very intelligent daughters, and very active in school, from varsity cheerleading, volleyball, basketball, track, key club, honors club, FBLA, you nameit they do it. This is a very difficult move for them as you can imagine. That is why i want to find a great school for them where they will fit in very well.

[jxu66]

If you got bright kids, definitely check out % of high school student > 1220 SAT on report card link list above.

After you go to individual school report card page, click "National Tests" and click "SAT highest tab". Drag down to the last highlight, you got % of high school student > 1220.

For example,

NorthView has 42% (42% of percentage of kids scored higher than 1220)
Chattahoochee has 36%
Milton has 34%
Duluth has 34%

For some reasons, Cobb county does not report that stat.

In some other schools, while their CRCT averages are among top 5% in the Georgia, % of high schools SAT > 1220 is around 10%. So that's why average SAT or CRCT score is misleading sometimes.

Just a little bit fact on "Asian factor".

NorthView, Chattahoochee and Duluth have large number of Asians (between 20% to 25%) while Milton, Walton, Pope have very few Asians.

By the way, 1220 is average SAT for incoming UGA freshmen.

[nrgpill]

There is also a trend in the coastal cities in California where a concentration of Asian population (mostly Chinese and Korean) is increasing the test scores in their respective high schools. Take for what its worth but the traditional thought was that a high concentration of a minority population would decrease the test scores and cause another "flight" by the majority.